Heavy Metal publisher Kevin Eastman has announced that the upcoming Heavy Metal animated film might end back up at Paramount. The movie studio’s backstage disagreement with David Fincher over the length of Benjamin Button’s running time supposedly resulted in Heavy Metal’s departure. But it looks like everything has been patched up. Eastman has also announced the line-up of directors attached to helm segments for the animated film:

Zack Snyder, David Fincher, Gore Verbinski

Eastman writes “there’s more on the director front — but I’ll hold off to share more with you shortly.” The feature is scheduled to include four or five segments, and is being envisioned as an adult-themed R-rated film. The original 1981 film was also an anthology of sci-fi and fantasy stories adapted from the Heavy Metal magazine. The magazine and the film are known for their overuse of bloody violence, nudity and sexuality.

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Heavy Metal publisher Kevin Eastman says that Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro and Gore Verbinski have expressed interest in joining executive producer David Fincher to direct segments of the upcoming Heavy Metal animated film. The feature is scheduled to include eight or nine segments, and is being envisioned as an adult-themed R-rated film. Animator Tim Miller and Eastman himself are also expected to direct segments. The original 1981 film was also an anthology of sci-fi and fantasy stories adapted from the Heavy Metal magazine. The magazine and the film are known for their overuse of bloody violence, nudity and sexuality.

Last week, I screened 20 minutes of clips of scenes from David Fincher‘s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In our first impression article, I expressed my concern and disappointment over the footage shown, partly because I felt some of the short scenes dragged. Note: I haven’t seen the entire film – I want to be clear on this…, I only screened 20 minutes of selected scenes. It was good but not great. I wasn’t alone, FirstShowing and Jeff Wells also posted articles about the disappointing buzz the footage received at the festival.

In my blog posting, I told you about the rumors of Paramount’s vicious fight with Fincher behind the scenes over the running time of the film. We also tried to connect the dots between the departure of Fincher’s planned adaption of Heavy Metal and the rumored fight. Now The Playlist has found an interview with Kevin Eastman, creator of the Ninja Turtles and publisher of Heavy Metal, where he finally confirms the rumors:

“We developed it for Paramount in January… And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,’ [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time… and so they said, ‘Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we’re not going to greenlight any other of [your] movies.’ And David said, ‘Fine, fuck you, I’m going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,’ so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there.”

Yes, Fincher is a bad ass who won’t take crap from anyone – including the studio who has supposedly spent over $150 million on a film aiming for award consideration. I’ve been told that this is his best and worst quality as a filmmaker.

But what if Paramount is right? I loved Fincher’s Zodiac, but I think the theatrical cut could have benefited by losing 20-30 minutes on the back end. (Hey, there will always be a director’s cut on DVD) It seems to me that Paramount might believe they are in the same situation with Button. It is worth noting that around the time of the Heavy Metal departure, the film was supposedly just under three hours long. An AICN reader saw a screening of that cut and admitted that “By an hour and a half/forty five, the audience was getting restless.”

Anne Thompson’s sources claim the film has since been cut to around two and a half hours, which probably meets with Fincher’s studio obligations. But is that still too long? Another website reports that the latest cut is around two hours and fourty minutes. I havent seen the film, but the scenes Paramount and Fincher decided to screen at Telluride dragged in parts. I’m hoping the pacing issues will be resolved in the finished movie / in the context of the finished movie, because this film has the potential to be really magical.

“Feed me, feed me comics,” booms Hollywood. According to TheGoon.com, /Film fave, David Fincher, has optioned movie rights for The Goon with plans to adapt the Dark Horse comic book into a CG animated film from Blur Studio. If this news sounds familiar, back in March it was announced that Fincher would team with Blur to produce and co-direct a new animated Heavy Metal anthology flick.

Created by Eric Powell in 1999, The Goon, “tells the adventures of a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer for a feared mobster. The Goon and his sidekick Franky often get tied up in other machinations, often in relation to the evil zombie gangs. There is a heavy slant on the paranormal.” The crew at Slashfilm is new to this title. Quint at AICN gives the series a glowing endorsement, calling it a “Depresson-era Hellboy” but even more twisted. Chime in with your opinions of the material in the comments.

It wasn’t specified whether Fincher, who is expected to lock up the Oscars with December’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, would direct. One would assume not, but clearly his interest in genre fare is strong. He remains attached to direct a live-action adaptation of the STD-horror graphic novel Black Hole from screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. Farther back in Fincher’s fridge is Image Comics’ Torso.

Director David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac) is set to co-direct, oversee and produce an animated feature film based on Heavy Metal Magazine, the adult fantasy and sci-fi publication founded in the ’70s that’s still in print today. The R-rated flick will consist of eight or nine individual animated tales, each to be helmed by a different director, so expect some rather far-out names added to the project shortly.

At this time, Fincher, Kevin Eastman, who co-created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and now owns and runs Heavy Metal (hmm, didn’t know that), and Tim Miller, whose California-based Blur Studio (Transformers: The Game, NFL graphics on Fox) will handle the animation, will each produce and helm a tale, leaving five or six open for those whose brain/PC is calculator-less. Scantily clad babes (and dudes) with hyper-musculature wielding axes and beheading mega-beasts via the mind who brought Fight Club to life. Ooh la la. Not even the most bummed dude on Earth is bumming on a random carpet stain today. And again, major props to Paramount Pictures for allowing Fincher to do whatever he pleases.

Some may recall that two animated Heavy Metal (1981’s Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal 2000) films already exist, both of which are usually found in the cult section of the video store you used to go to. Somewhere Sexman is trying to pass for 18 with a mustache made from chocolate milk, I have no doubt.

David Fincher sat down with MTV, and boy did he blab about a bunch of potential upcoming projects. First up he confirmed rumors that he wants to bring Fight Club to Broadway in 2009!?

“One of the things I want at the 10-year anniversary is to do “Fight Club” as a musical on Broadway. I love the idea of that.”

Fight Club is one of my favorite films of all time, although I’m not so sure about a musical adaptation. In 2004, author Chuck Palahuik was telling fans that Trent Reznor was writing the soundtrack. I wonder if that is still the case. Fincher says he’d love to work with Palahnuik again, and has been considering brining Lullaby to the big screen.

“I was pretty interested in Lullaby. It almost has to be dumbed down a bit for it to work as a movie. I always love his writing. It cracks me up.”

And with 3D being all the rage now-a-days, even Fincher has caught the fever:

“I’m in talks right now to do a series of CG-animated 3-D films for [fantasy comics magazine] Heavy Metal.”

Fincher has also been trying to get Rendezvous With Rama off the ground for some time now. Arthur C. Clarke’s 1972 novel is set in the 22nd century, a group of human explorers, who intercept a thirty-mile-long cylindrical alien starship that passes through Earth’s solar system, and attempt to unlock its mysteries. The Zodiac director says he’s waiting on a script.

“When they’re happy with it, they’ll send it to me. It’s a project I’ve always loved. It’s probably technologically within striking distance right now. That was always the thing: You couldn’t afford to build these things as sets. It’s just too huge.”

Fincher says they would probably shoot the sequences involving the humans on board the alien ship using motion-capture.

“There’s probably a week or two onboard the ship that you’d have to do the weightlessness and the landing before they get to Rama. We’d probably do it with some kind of performance-capture.”